Baldwin

Mark Steven Van Buskirk was convicted on his plea of guilty of murdering Linda Newman on March 15, 1993. After failing to obtain post conviction relief in the state courts, he filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition in the District of Oregon. He appeals the judgment denying relief. We affirm.

The petitioner’s principal argument on appeal is that he was denied effective assistance of counsel throughout his state trial and post conviction proceedings because none of his lawyers sufficiently investigated his mental health history and thereby denied him an insanity defense. On September 6, 1994, he filed a state post-conviction petition. That petition identified two claims of trial court error and four claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, but these claims were unrelated to trial counsel’s alleged failure to investigate petitioner’s mental condition, and have been abandoned.

Van Buskirk filed his federal petition in 1997. The pending claims are therefore subject to the strict limitations of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (2000). Under subsection (d)(1) of 28 U.S.C. § 2244 , a one year limitations period “shall apply to an…